Incompetent, lazy and dishonest research

Have at last got round to reading yesterday's Guardian.

Several pages of analysis about the causes of the August riots, relying on a study carried out by the Guardian and the London School of Economics.

However the methodology of the study appears to be flawed.

In seeking to understand the reasons why the interviewees rioted the researchers seem to have just recorded the first answer they were given.

This is incompetent, lazy and dishonest research.

Anyone who is concerned with human motivation will know that you have to ask the same questions four or five different times, using different wording, before you will get an understanding of the REAL motivation for a certain type of behaviour.

For instance, it is extremely unlikely the rioters are going to say they rioted "because I was racially motivated" or "because I like stealing" or "because I enjoy being violent".  And yet those may well be the reasons they joined in the riots.  It is not good enough to simply record the first answer given (especially after months in which the respondent has rationalised their behaviour, perhaps even to themselves, in socially-acceptable terms).

Also in the Guardian Gary Younge compared the August riots with the uprising in Tunisia - laughable stuff.